I highly recommend Debt: the first 5000 years
https://www.amazon.com/Debt-Updated-Expanded-First-Years/dp/...
and Heilbroner's Worldly Philosophers https://www.amazon.com/Worldly-Philosophers-Economic-Thinker...
Ask HN: What are the must-read books about economics/finance?
51–60 of 274 posts
Re: Ask HN: What are the must-read books about economics/finance?
#52Can't recommend this book highly enough: A Concise Guide to Macroeconomics, Second Edition: What Managers, Executives, and Students Need to Know http://a.co/jicSNc9
Re: Ask HN: What are the must-read books about economics/finance?
#53The following list will introduce you to Western Economic Philosophy as it relates to modern history specifically. This list is weighted heavily toward neo-classical economics and does not get into computational model based economics - specifically microeconomics, which comprises the bulk of economics education today: Schumpeter - History of economic analysis Adam Smith - Theory of Moral Sentiments Kaynes - The Gener…
All of those are very dated and you won't learn much about modern economic thought from them. Many of those people (Keynes, Marx, Graham, etc...) are like reading Freud. Very little of what Freud wrote has made into modern psychological though. It is more of his methodical approach that brought psychology into the modern age. The same can be said of many on that list. They brought a rigor of thought to economics that it might have been lacking; it isn't really that their ideas have passed the test of time. The 1970's for example almost caused the destruction of Keynesian thought with its basically impossible high inflation and high unemployment until the neo-Keynsians patched it up enough to limp forward.
Re: Ask HN: What are the must-read books about economics/finance?
#54I read Dubner and Levitt's Freakonomics in 2005. It's lame to say that a pop-science book changed my life, but since then I've thought about economics every day. I would recommend some pop-econ to become familiar with a stylized version of how economists think. I'd recommend Tim Harford's The Undercover Economist Strikes Back and The Logic of Life and Robert Frank's The Economic Naturalist . (Dubner's and Levitt's bo…
Can you give me some examples of the academic econ blogs? I'm looking to get into it
Re: Ask HN: What are the must-read books about economics/finance?
#55The following list will introduce you to Western Economic Philosophy as it relates to modern history specifically. This list is weighted heavily toward neo-classical economics and does not get into computational model based economics - specifically microeconomics, which comprises the bulk of economics education today: Schumpeter - History of economic analysis Adam Smith - Theory of Moral Sentiments Kaynes - The Gener…
All of those are very dated and you won't learn much about modern economic thought from them. Many of those people (Keynes, Marx, Graham, etc...) are like reading Freud. Very little of what Freud wrote has made into modern psychological though. It is more of his methodical approach that brought psychology into the modern age. The same can be said of many on that list. They brought a rigor of thought to economics that…
I think it's safe to say that Keynes works are the foundation of modern macroeconomics. His economic cycles are doctrine in economic planning. Moreover he has been invoked increasingly post 2008 recession.
Re: Ask HN: What are the must-read books about economics/finance?
#56The following list will introduce you to Western Economic Philosophy as it relates to modern history specifically. This list is weighted heavily toward neo-classical economics and does not get into computational model based economics - specifically microeconomics, which comprises the bulk of economics education today: Schumpeter - History of economic analysis Adam Smith - Theory of Moral Sentiments Kaynes - The Gener…
Excellent list. This is basically an undergraduate Econ degree here. I would also add Veblin to this list of authors. Also, one of my favorite overviews of economists is The Worldy Philosophers.
Thorstein Veblen? Also, may be off center or not, but, Peter Bernstein "Against the Gods".
Re: Ask HN: What are the must-read books about economics/finance?
#57Economics in One Lesson by Henry Hazlitt Human Action by Ludwig von Mises
Great suggestions! I second this.
Re: Ask HN: What are the must-read books about economics/finance?
#58(Economics major and longtime econ book/paper reader here) I very much enjoyed The Cartoon Introduction to Economics as an introduction to microeconomic concepts: http://standupeconomist.com/cartoon-intro-microeconomics/ It's extremely readable and funny and covers most of the situations in real life where you can apply economic concepts to understand why something is the way it is. Understanding why countries and ec…
This is a common misunderstanding. Buffett Partnership Ltd., Buffett's initial hedge fund, was very much was guided by the cigar butt style investment principles of Graham.
When Buffett bought Berkshire Hathaway a few years after closing the partnership, his investment philosophy had changed. Your best bet to understand his investing is to simply read his letters.
He may come across as a bit folksy or country bumpkin, but he's fairly clear in his methodology.
Here are some links you may find helpful: http://www.rbcpa.com/WEB_letters/WEB_Letters_pre_berkshire.h...
http://www.berkshirehathaway.com/letters/letters.html
Enjoy.
Re: Ask HN: What are the must-read books about economics/finance?
#59I highly recommend Debt: the first 5000 years https://www.amazon.com/Debt-Updated-Expanded-First-Years/dp/... and Heilbroner's Worldly Philosophers https://www.amazon.com/Worldly-Philosophers-Economic-Thinker...
"Debt"'s troubling passage on Jubilee is archaic.
Re: Ask HN: What are the must-read books about economics/finance?
#60The following list will introduce you to Western Economic Philosophy as it relates to modern history specifically. This list is weighted heavily toward neo-classical economics and does not get into computational model based economics - specifically microeconomics, which comprises the bulk of economics education today: Schumpeter - History of economic analysis Adam Smith - Theory of Moral Sentiments Kaynes - The Gener…
That's a pretty good list, though I have to take exception to your suggestions for heterodox economics all coming from the Hayek-Mises-Rothbard Austrian/Libertarian tradition. There's considerably more to heterodox economics than Libertarian school.
"Heterodox economics" is an umbrella term used to cover various approaches, schools, or traditions. These include socialist, Marxian, institutional, evolutionary, Georgist, Austrian, feminist,[3] social, post-Keynesian (not to be confused with New Keynesian),[2] and ecological economics among others.[4]
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heterodox_economics
Steve Keen offers a fairly compelling criticism in Debunking Economics.
Ha-Joon Chang, of LSE, has several books providing criticisms and overviews of economics, his Economics: the user's guide is a light and readable overview. http://www.worldcat.org/title/economics-the-users-guide/oclc...
(It's worth noting that Ha-Joon Chang tends toward a Marxian view and in particular is a contrarian in trade and development concepts. I happen to think his views have merits.)
There are several books which cover the history of economic thought, from more and less inclusive perspectives. Roger Backhouse's The Ordinary Business of Life is extraordinarily dry, but reasonably encompasses the mainstream. http://www.worldcat.org/title/ordinary-business-of-life-a-hi...
Heilbroner's The Worldly Philosophers is a classic: http://www.worldcat.org/title/worldly-philosophers-the-lives...
For heterodoxy, I'd add to the Austrian side:
Herman Daly on ecological economics. http://www.worldcat.org/title/ecological-economics-principle... ul it in f l. Erick D. Beinhocker's The Origin of Wealth: Evolution, complexity, and the radical remaking of economics strikes me from reviews and a brief overview as one of the more interesting recent books on economics. I've yet to read it in full. http://www.worldcat.org/title/origin-of-wealth-evolution-com...
There's slew of other books, many quite bad, on the subject. I'm largely convinced economics is vastly overdue for a robust remaking. I'm not convinced that will happen.
(It was my degree subject at uni. I've been trying to comprehend it and rationalise its vast internal contradictions and inconsistencies since.)